The Saffron Cloth
The sage Chidanand was deep in meditation one evening when the disheveled figure of a young man burst through the doorway. Panting for breath, the young man threw himself at the feet of the sage. “Save me, your holiness,” he gasped. “I am Prince Dev, the son of King Chambal. My father has been slain, and invaders have committed the capital city to flames. Now I am a fugitive with the enemy close at my heels.”
“Be of good heart, my son,” said the sage, handing the young man a length of saffron material. “Wrap yourself in this cloth and we can pretend you are one of my disciples.”
Before many minutes had passed, they heard horsemen galloping up to the hermitage, and soon afterward, three heavily armed men charged into the hut. “Well,” said the sage into the heavy silence, “Why do you armed men dare come into this holy place? State what you want and go.”
Quelling before the stern gaze of the sage, the leader growled, “We are searching for the fugitive Prince Dev. Have you seen the wretch?”
“I have seen no wretch,” said the sage sternly. “And no one has passed this hermitage, so depart and leave us in peace.”
And so Prince Dev stayed with the sage, but as the days passed, his thoughts grew heavy at the memory of his murdered father and the present plight of the people of his kingdom. One evening the prince approached the sage and in a troubled voice said, “Father, I can stay here no longer. I must go to my uncle, King Mahesh, and raise an army somehow, and reconquer the kingdom so that my subjects will not be under the yoke of these murderous invaders.”
“But you will need a lot of money to raise an army,” said the sage, reaching for a jar on a shelf. “Take this jar and it will help you.”
“What does it contain, father?” asked Dev with a puzzled look.
The old sage smiled, “It is an oracle of the gods. Just sprinkle the liquid on any article and it immediately changes into gold.”
Dev thanked the sage for all his help and kindness, and gathering up his precious bottle and with the saffron cloth draped across his shoulders, set out on the long journey to the kingdom of his maternal uncle, King Mahesh.
When Dev eventually arrived at his uncle’s palace, he was received without any great enthusiasm. The king, who was miserly by nature, had often toyed with the idea of reconquering Jasalmer for himself, and certainly had no intention of lending his formidable army merely to put his nephew on the throne.
Dev refused to be discouraged by his uncle’s attitude, and knowing that the tight-fisted monarch paid his troops begrudgingly and always months in arrears, Dev was sure he could coerce the army to his way of thinking. So after a lot of arguments, he got his uncle to agree to hold a meeting with all the army commanders to discuss an invasion of Jasalmer.
Before the conference was due to begin, Dev collected a huge pile of iron bars, which he sprinkled with the miracle liquid the sage had given him, and watched the iron turn into glittering gold. He wrapped each piece of gold in a silken cloth, and as each army officer entered the conference chamber, Dev handed each a bar of gold saying, “This is merely a token of what you will receive under my command when we recapture Jasalmer.”
The army commanders, who had never seen so much gold before, refused to listen to their own king, and all vowed their readiness to march that very day to capture Jasalmer and put Prince Dev on the throne.
So Prince Dev, with a vast army under his command, descended on Jasalmer, and his troops thirsting for victory and more gold, soon routed the enemy. Then the prince took his rightful place on the throne, and the courtiers were puzzled when they saw that their new monarch had a length of saffron cloth draped over his shoulders.
When one of the ministers asked what did this cloth signify, King Dev proudly announced, “With this piece of cloth, the great sage Chidanand saved my life and also made it possible for me to avenge the wrongs done to my people.”
